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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



1 




Mother 



Where Do They Come From? 

A book for children, explaining in simple, modest 

words the mystery of the origin of life 

and the sacredness of procreation 



By if O. TEASLEY 
il 

Author of Private Lectures to Mothers and Daugh- 
ters, Private Lectures to Men and Boys, 
Bays of Hope, The Truant, The 
Double Cure, etc. 



"Ignorance is the mother of vice" 
"Knowledge is power' ' 



Published by 

GOSPEL TRUMPET COMPANY, 

Anderson, Indiana 



T1 



Copyright 1917 

by 

Gospel Trumpet Company. 






DEC 13 1917 
©CI.A477993 



PREFACE 



Preface 

The intention of this book is not to 
delve into science nor to exhaust the sub- 
ject with which it deals, but to present 
concisely the elementary laws of procrea- 
tion in plain yet modest words that will 
both instruct and elevate the minds of the 
young. 

There are many books that treat the 
subject of sex and procreation, but many 
of them are too advanced, both in termi- 
nology and in their treatment of the sub- 
ject, for young children just beginning to 
read and to ask questions about sex. Some 
books, too, are so extensive in their treat- 
ment that a child will not read them. It is 
hoped that the simplicity and brevity of 
this little book will appeal to youthful 
minds, and that it will prove helpful to 
parents who wish to combat ignorance and 
7 



8 
evil by the judicious impartation of sex 
knowledge. 

It is not presumed, however, that this 
book contains all the available and useful 
instructions on the subject of sex and re- 
production. There are many good books 
that parents especially should read, but 
you should not give to your child any book 
to read until you are sure that it contains 
wholesome instruction. 



FOREWORD TO PARENTS 



Foreword to Parents 

This book has been written as much to 
assist parents as to instruct children. There 
are parents who try to keep from their 
children the knowledge of sex. Such par- 
ents may not welcome this little volume 
and the many others of its kind; but when 
their children grow up ignorant of the most 
important phase of earthly life, or learn 
about sex and procreation from bad com- 
pany, and are led to physical dissipation 
and mental ruin, they will see their mis- 
take — but it will be too late. There is 
a vast and ever-increasing number of other 
parents, however, who would like to in- 
struct their children, but their own techni- 
cal knowledge of the laws of generation is 
so limited that they feel unable properly 
to teach the subject. By such parents as 
the latter, and by the children of such par- 
11 



12 
ents, this book will doubtless be welcomed. 

The real question for us parents to solve 
is not, Shall we keep from our children the 
knowledge of sex? but, Who shall be their 
teacher? Children will learn about sex 
and procreation. It is natural that they 
should learn. Neglect to teach them your- 
self, and they will learn from older chil- 
dren or degraded adults — learn in the vul- 
gar terms of the profane — learn in a man- 
ner that will inflame their passions, lower 
their ideas of life, and open the way to 
dissipation, immorality, and disgrace. You 
must settle the question, Who shall teach 
my child the knowledge of self and sex? 

It is suggested that parents read this 
book with their children. If they ask 
questions that are too deep for their young 
minds, tell them that they can not under- 
stand all yet, but that later on in life you 
will endeavor to make it all plain. Often 
this intimate association of parent and child 
will form a link of confidence and trust 






13 
that will help the parent safely to pilot 
the child through the rough and dangerous 
places of childhood and youth. 



FOREWORD TO CHILDREN 



Foreword to Children 

My Dear Little Friends : 

You will find in this book, I hope, the 
answer to many of your questions about the 
mystery of life. But do not expect too 
much, for our subject is a large one and 
even the wisest of men and women do not 
understand all about it. Read the book 
carefully. Begin with the first chapter and 
read page by page to the end. In any 
other way you will not get a clear under- 
standing. 

I have tried to use simple language, but 
if you find words that you do not under- 
stand or ideas that are not clear to you, 
go to your parents or your teacher and they 
may be able to help you. Above all, let 
me ask of you not to talk of the things in 
this book to other boys and girls. It is 
especially improper for boys and girls to 
17 



18 
speak to one another about sex and the 
origin of life. Always ask your parents, 
your school teacher, or your Sunday-school 
teacher for information about these things, 
but never ask in the presence of others. 
Choose some older person when he, or she, 
is all alone, then ask for the information 
you desire. 

In concluding this foreword, let me say, 
little readers, that I tell to you freely 
and confidentially the things contained in 
this book, and I am going to trust you to 
use them wisely. If some day when you 
are grown to be good and strong men and 
women, I may have the pleasure of meet- 
ing some of you and hearing you say that 
this book has helped you, I shall be highly 
rewarded for my labor. 



WHERE DID ALL THINGS 
START FROM? 



Where Do They Come From? 21 

Chapter I 
Where Did All Things Start From? 

When we look up at the great blue sky 
above us filled with thousands of shining 
stars, and lighted by the sun in the day- 
time and by the moon at night; when we 
look around us at the big world full of 
plants, animals, and men, we cry out in 
wonder, "Where do all these things come 
from?" 

Among the very first questions asked by 
a boy or girl is, "Where did this come 
from?" The baby, even before it can speak, 
gazes in wonder at the great world it sees 
and seems to ask with its eyes, "Where 
do all these things come from?" 

If we want an answer to our question, 
we must go to God's book of beginnings. 
Genesis, the name of the first book in the 
Bible, means beginning. In the first words 
of that book we read, "In the beginning 



22 Where Do They Come From? 

God created the heaven and the earth." 
So, then, God is the beginning of all things. 
The apostle John says, "All things were 
made by Him; and without Him was not 
anything made that was made." 

The first things made by God were the 
heavens and the earth. But the earth was 
without form and deep darkness lay upon 
all the world. For a long time the world 
may have remained in this condition of 
formlessness and darkness. But finally it 
pleased God to finish the world that he 
had created. God, having all power, had 
only to speak, and whatever he willed was 
done. He might have finished the whole 
world of things in one day, but he divided 
his work into six days. 

On the first day God made the light. 
"And God said, Let there be Light: and 
there was light. And God saw the light, 
that it was good: and God divided the 
light from the darkness. And God called 



Where Do They Come From? 23 

the light Day, and the darkness he called 
Night. And the evening and the morning 
were the first day." On the second day 
God caused the clouds to rise to their place 
in the sky. And God called the clouds, 
the air, and the sky that now rose above 
the earth, Heaven. This heaven is not, 
of course, the place where the righteous go 
after death and the judgment. 

On the third day God divided the water 
from the land, and the water he called 
Seas, and the land he called Earth. The 
three great divisions of the world, then, are 
heavens, seas, and earth. Next, God said : 
"Let the earth bring forth grass and herb," 
and the earth obeyed his word and the 
grasses and herbs sprang up on the earth. 
You will see that there was grass before 
there were any animals to eat the grass. 

On the fourth day God lit his big lamps 
— the sun, the moon, and the stars. Be- 
fore this day, no doubt the heavy clouds 



24 Where Do They Come From? 

had obscured the great lights, but now God 
cleared the sky and set them to their great 
task — the sun to rule the day, the moon 
to rule the night, and the stars to twinkle 
in the sky. The great lights are also for 
signs and seasons, and to mark the days 
and the years so that time can be reckoned. 

On the fifth day God said, "Let the 
waters bring forth abundantly the moving 
creature that hath life, and fowl that may 
fly above the earth in the open firmament 
of heaven. And God created great whales, 
and every living creature that moveth, 
which the waters brought forth abundantly, 
after their kind, and every winged fowl 
after his kind: and God saw that it was 
good." You will notice that on this, the 
fifth day, God made the fowls and fishes. 

It was now the beginning of the sixth 
day, "And God said, Let the earth bring 
forth the living creature after his kind, 
and cattle after their kind, and everything 



Where Do They Come From? 25 

that creepeth upon the earth after his kind : 
Up to this time God had not made any 
people, for we read in the Bible that "there 
was not a man to till the ground." "And 
God said, Let us make man in our im- 
age, after our likeness: and let them have 
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over 
the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, 
and over all the earth, and over every 
creeping thing that creepeth upon the 
earth." "And the Lord God formed 
man of the dust of the ground, and breathed 
into his nostrils the breath of life; and 
man became a living soul." God made 
man's body, you see, out of the dust of 
the ground, but man's life and soul were 
breathed into him from the nostrils of God. 
But man was alone. In Gen. 2:18 we 
read, "And the Lord God said, it is not 
good that man should be alone; I will 
make him an help meet for him." "And 
the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall 



26 Where Do They Come From? 

upon Adam, and he slept: and he took 
one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh 
thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God 
had taken from man, made he a woman, 
and brought her unto the man." 

"Thus the heavens and the earth were 
finished, and all the host of them. And 
on the seventh day God ended his work 
which he had made; and he rested on the 
seventh day from all his work which he 
had made." 



_ 



HOW HAVE ALL THINGS 



CONTINUED? 



Where Do They Come From? 29 

Chapter II 

How Have All Things Continued? 

We all know that the flowers, fishes, 
animals, and people that we see around 
us today are not the ones that God first 
made, for those first fishes, animals, and 
men died many years ago. God knew that 
unless he gave all life the proper power 
to reproduce itself, that soon there would 
be no living creatures in the world and he 
would have to do all his work over again, 
so God gave those first flowers, fishes, 
birds, animals, and persons the power to 
produce others like themselves. "And God 
blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and mul- 
tiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and 
let fowl multiply in the earth." To Adam 
and his wife, God gave the same mys- 
terious power to produce other people like 
themselves. "And God blessed them, and 
God said unto them, Be fruitful, and mul- 



30 Where Do They Come From? 

tiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue 
it: and have dominion over the fish of the 
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over 
every living thing that moveth upon the 
earth." Thus God gave every living thing 
the power to continue its kind. Before 
one individual dies, there is one or two or 
three others to take its place, and so there 
are many more living things in the world 
today than there were when God made 
the world. 

Of the mysteries of this God-given 
power, we shall learn more as we proceed 
with our study. 

This power that is given to every liv- 
ing thing to bring into the world other 
creatures like itself, we shall call the par- 
ental, or procreative, power. This won- 
derful power is a holy gift of God, and 
boys and girls should not speak of it except 
to Papa and Mama, to Teacher, or to 
some other wise person, who will give you 



Where Do They Come From? 31 

good and proper instruction. It is im- 
proper, as I have before told you, for boys 
to speak of it to girls, or girls to boys. 
Some bad school children are inclined to 
speak of this God-given parental power 
and other private and sacred things by the 
use of vulgar and unclean words. This is 
very wrong and improper. Shun the boy 
and the girl who uses bad words and do 
not listen to their filthy conversation. For 
their association and improper words will 
hinder you in making of yourself a manly 
man or a womanly woman. 

I have told you that God gave to the 
first creatures he made, the power to bring 
others into the world, but this does not ex- 
plain how that mysterious power is exer- 
cised, and consequently does not satisfy 
your minds. I now will tell you the great 
law that governs the reproduction of all 
living beings. In later chapters I will il- 



32 Where Do They Come From? 

lustrate how this great law applies to dif- 
ferent forms of life. 

Though you may not have known it, 
every living thing in the world — with a 
few exceptions in the lower forms of life 
— has a mama and a papa just as you have. 
There are mama and papa flowers, fishes, 
fowls, and animals. It is to these mamas 
and papas that God has given the mys- 
terious power to bring baby creatures into 
the world. Without both a mama and a 
papa there could be no flowers, no fishes, 
no birds, and no sweet babies. 

The flowers, grasses, and trees — things 
that do not have the power of feeling — 
start from seeds, but fishes, birds, and ani- 
mals — all of which have feeling — start 
from eggs. In every case, however, the 
seed or the egg produced by the mama 
must be touched or fertilized by the papa 
element before it has power to develop in- 
to a new life. Just how fertilization takes 



Where Do They Come From? 33 

place, that is, just how the papa and mama 
elements touch and unite to start a new 
life, you will learn in later chapters. 

There are many different ways in which 
new creatures are begotten and born. In 
some cases in the flower family, the papa 
and mama elements are carried by the 
breezes or by the bees until they touch and 
unite; in some cases, in the fish family, the 
papa and mama elements meet in the 
water; but in animal life the elements meet 
before the mama element has left the 
mother's body. A new life may begin 
in the earth from a tiny seed, may start 
in the waters of a brook, in a warm nest, 
or in the mother's body. In almost every 
kind of life, however, there must be a papa 
and a mama element, and they must meet 
and unite before a new life can begin. 



THREE KINGDOMS 
OF LIFE 



Where Do They Come From? 37 

Chapter III 

Three Kingdoms of Life 

There are in the natural world three 
kingdoms of life — the mineral, the vege- 
table, and the animal. The mineral king- 
dom, composed of the earth, does not poss- 
ess organic life. The stones, for instance, 
which belong to the mineral kingdom, do 
not have the organs of life, such as the 
roots and leaves of the vegetable, or the 
lungs and stomach of the animal. The 
form of life found in the mineral king- 
dom is therefore called inorganic life. The 
stones, you know, do not grow nor feel 
nor reproduce themselves. There are no 
mama stones, no papa stones, no baby 
stones. In our study of where things come 
from, then, we are not interested in the 
mineral kingdom so much as we are in the 
higher forms of life, found in the vegetable 
and animal kingdoms. 




Life 






m 



Life 







Three Kingdoms of Life 



Where Do They Come From? 39 

Though the vegetables do not see, nor 
smell, nor hear, nor taste, nor feel, yet they 
do grow and reproduce themselves. There 
are mamas, papas, and babies in the vege- 
table kingdom, just as there are in the ani- 
mal kingdom or the human family. As 
we shall learn in a later chapter, every 
vegetable baby must start originally from 
a seed. 

Every creature in the animal kingdom 
not only grows, but also possesses feeling. 
We say that vegetables live and grow, 
but animals live and grow and feel. Ani- 
mals possess the ability, also, to move from 
place to place by their own power, whereas 
the vegetable does not possess mobility, or 
the power to move. The reproduction of 
the animal, however, is very much the 
same as that of the vegetable, except that 
animals, or, as they are sometimes called, 
sentiment or feeling beings, come from eggs 
instead of from seeds. 



40 Where Do They Come From? 

Though man is superior to the lower 
animals, he is nevertheless a member of the 
animal kingdom of life. It is man's more 
perfect body and far superior mind and his 
soul that elevate him above the lower ani- 
mals, but in the method of reproducing his 
kind, man is much the same as the animals. 
In the chapters that follow, the particulars 
of procreation will appear clearer to your 
mind, and the wonders of God's plan of 
life will cause you to love and reverence 
the laws of reproduction. 



WHERE DO THE FRUIT 

AND FLOWER BABIES 

COME FROM? 



Where Do They Come From? 43 

Chapter IV 

Where Do the Fruit and Flower 
Babies Come From? 

It may seem strange to you that there 
are baby fruits and baby flowers, just as 
there are baby boys and baby girls, but 
every young fruit-tree and every tiny flower 
is really a little plant-baby. It is of these 
vegetable babies and how they come into 
the world that I am about to tell you. 

In some plants the papa and the mama 
elements are in the same flower; in others 
they are on the same stalk, but in sep- 
arate flowers; and in still others, the papa 
element is on one plant and the mama 
element is on another. We will now not- 
ice, separately, a common example of each 
of the plants just mentioned. 

The morning-glory is a good example of 
the plants that have the papa and the mama 
in the same flower. If you will notice the 



44 Where Do They Come From? 

morning-glory closely, you will see fine lit- 
tle stems, or stamens, as they are called, 
growing inside the flower. On the tips of 
these stems is a fine yellow dust, or pow- 
der, called pollen. These stems are the 
morning-glory papa, and the yellow dust, 
or pollen, is the papa element, or life-germ. 

Now let us see if we can find the morn- 
ing-glory mama. She is more retiring than 
the papa, so we must look more closely. 
Hidden deep down in the center of the 
flower you will find six tiny seeds. These 
seeds, with their covering and a tender, 
tube-like passage that leads down to them, 
make up the morning-glory mama. 

But how do the papa and mama ele- 
ments meet and unite? for unless they 
meet there can be no morning-glory babies. 
The tip of the mama tube in the center 
of the flower is soft and moist, but the yel- 
low dust, or pollen, is dry. The wind 
blows on the morning-glory vine, or a busy 



Where Do They Come From? 45 

bee in search of honey flies into the flower, 
and the pollen falls from the stems, or 
stamen, and drops on the moist tip of the 
tube, where it lodges. It then finds its 
v/ay down the small passage in the center 
of the tube and meets the waiting seeds. 
This process is called fertilization. 

Time goes on. The flowers dry up and 
die, leaving a little brown pod with the 
seeds in it. After awhile the pod opens, 
the morning-glory bows her head, and the 
baby seeds fall to the ground where they 
sleep until the next spring. Then the 
warm showers and sunshine call to the little 
seeds and they begin to grow. The vines 
soon grow up, bloom, and produce another 
little morning-glory family. But if the 
pollen, or papa element, had not reached 
the seeds, or mama element, no amount of 
sunshine and rain could have made the 
seeds to grow. So you see the morning- 
glory has a papa and a mama, and all 




Morning Glory Babies 



Where Do They Come From? 47 

the morning-glories came from papas and 
mamas. 

To most American children, Indian 
corn, or common field corn, is a familiar 
example of a plant that combines the papa 
and the mama elements on the same stalk 
but not in the same flower. If you will 
go to a corn-field at the time of year when 
the corn is "in tassel" and the ears are 
forming, you will notice that out of the 
point of each ear of corn is growing a hair- 
like substance commonly called the "silk." 
This bunch of silk, with one end hanging 
out of the ear and the other end of each 
silk running down to the young grains of 
corn, is the mama element. The pollen 
that forms on the tassel is the papa ele- 
ment If you go into the corn-field at 
flowering-time, you may see the pollen 
flying in the air when the corn-stalk is 
shaken. This pollen, or pa"pa element, 
falls on the silk, and its influence is borne 




* -H\X' ;V*> •.?/-. //-/<?/ 



■^•i 






Corn Babies 



Where Do They Come From? 49 

to the young grains of corn. When the 
corn has ripened, the farmer stores it away 
until springtime. Then he plants the 
grains, or seeds, that were fertilized. 
There, warmed by the sunshine and nour- 
ished by the moisture from the spring rains, 
the seeds begin to grow and produce baby 
stalks of corn. So we see that the corn 
babies have both a papa and a mama. 

There is still another kind of plant that 
I must tell you about. An example of 
these plants, known to most of you, is the 
strawberry. Some strawberry plants pro- 
duce a mama flower, sometimes called the 
imperfect flower; others, though they have 
the mama element too, have the papa ele- 
ment, and are called perfect flowers. In 
the center of the papa, or perfect, flower 
are a number of little stems called 
stamens. On the points of these grows the 
pollen, a very fine yellow dust. The 
mama, or imperfect, flowers do not have 



50 Where Do They Come From? 

these stamens and pollen. When the fruit- 
grower sets out his strawberry plants, he 
fills every fourth or fifth row with plants 
that will produce papa, or perfect, flow- 
ers, so that when the blooms come the 
pollen may pass from the papa plants to 
the mama plants. At blooming-time the 
wind blows the pollen from one plant to 
the other, or the busy bee in search of 
honey carries it from one to another. There 
are many other plants that have the papa 
and the mama elements on separate stalks, 
bushes, or trees. Sometimes these papas 
and mamas are widely separated, but be- 
fore they can produce other plants like 
themselves, the papa element must pass 
to the mama. Many a busy old bumble- 
bee crawls into a papa flower in search 
of honey, and then flies out again not know- 
ing, of course, that some pollen, or papa 
element from the papa flower, has stuck to 
his hairy old legs. Later he visits a mama 




Fruit Babies 



52 Where Do They Come From? 

flower, and in the act of getting in and 
out he shakes off the pollen, which unites 
with the mama flower to produce a little 
plant-baby. 

Plants are very much like human beings. 
They get married, rear children, and then 
die and leave their offspring to fill their 
places in the world. Springtime is the 
wedding-day of the plants. It is then, 
you know, that the lily puts on her pure 
white robes, the rose dons her crimson, 
pink, and white, and all the other flowers 
put on their best clothes and their brightest 
colors. In honor of this great wedding- 
day, Nature trims the earth in green, and 
all the birds sing for joy. 

The autumn, or fall of the year, we 
might call the funeral-day of the plants 
and flowers. The earth is draped in 
brown and gray. But each mother flower, 
as she reverently bows her head and sinks 
to rest on the earth, lets fall from her bosom 



Where Do They Come From? 53 

a tiny seed that has been touched and 
fertilized by the father who now sinks by 
her side. If the mother flower could know 
and speak, she would tell us that she is 
happy even in the gray autumn, for she 
would know that the seed she drops in the 
earth would, with the coming of another 
spring, help to fill the earth with fragrance, 
joy, and beauty. 



i 



THE OYSTER BABIES 



Where Do They Come From? 57 

Chapter V 
The Oyster Babies 

The fruit and flower babies, which we 
have just studied, belong to the class of 
nonsentient beings, or beings that do not 
have nerves nor the power to feel. The 
oyster is one of the lowest forms of ani- 
mal life. It is supposed to possess the 
sense of feeling, but it can not see, nor 
hear, nor taste, nor smell. Yet because 
it can feel we class it with the sentient, or 
feeling beings. 

The oyster, unlike most sentient beings, 
has the mama and the papa natures in 
the same body. The oyster is very tender 
and would soon be killed by the rocks and 
the water if it did not have some protection. 
So nature has built the oyster a very 
strong house. This house is called the 
shell. You have doubtless seen the oyster 
shell. It is composed of two parts that 




Oyster Babies 



Where Do They Come From? 59 

fit so tightly together by strong muscles 
that nothing can get in to harm the oyster 
family. 

In this strong shell-house the mama ele- 
ment and the papa element each contrib- 
utes its part to the starting of the baby 
oyster. When springtime comes, the door 
of the oyster house opens and the tiny fer- 
tile egg is expelled. The oyster egg then 
floats about in the water until it lodges 
against a stone or some other hard sub- 
stance, where it sticks fast and begins to 
grow. Soon a strong shell-house, like the 
one it came out of, begins to form about 
the growing oyster baby. Some day it will 
be a full-grown oyster with a mama and a 
papa nature, and will loosen itself from the 
stone and live like other oysters. 



WHERE DO THE FISH BABIES 
COME FROM? 



Where Do They Come From? 63 

Chapter VI 

Where Do the Fish Babies Come 
From? 

You will remember that I told you in 
a previous chapter that some babies come 
from seeds and others from eggs. The 
eggs in the fish family are produced by the 
mother, just as the seeds are produced 
by the mama plants and flowers, but be- 
fore the eggs can hatch out any baby fishes, 
they must be fertilized by the papa element. 

When the spring rains begin to patter 
on the roof of the fish house — the river 
or the pond — Mr. and Mrs. Fish start up- 
stream to find their summer home in the 
warm shallow waters to raise a little fish 
family. 

When they have found a convenient 
place, the mother fish expels a large num- 
ber of tiny eggs fromi her body, where 
they have been growing for some time. 




u_i 






Fish Family 



Where Do They Come From? 65 

You must remember, however, that all 
eggs are not as large as the hen's egg, with 
which you are possibly best acquainted. 
Many eggs are so small that they can not 
be seen without the aid of a magnifying 
glass. Some fish eggs are about the size of 
mustard seeds, or even smaller, but the 
mother fish produces hundreds and even 
thousands of them. After the mother has 
deposited the bunch of tiny eggs under the 
edge of some rock or in some other safe 
place, the father fish swims over them and 
expels upon them from his body a whitish 
fluid which looks very much like the white 
part of a hen's egg. This whitish fluid 
contains the papa element that fertilizes 
the eggs, or mama element, so that they 
will hatch out many little baby fishes. All 
the eggs do not hatch, of course, for 
some of them are destroyed; but a great 
number of the eggs deposited by the mama 
fish and fertilized by the papa fish will 



66 Where Do They Come From? 

soon hatch out little fishes to swim about 
in the warm shallow water. 

The mama and papa fish are not as good 
to their babies as our papas and mamas 
are to us. When they have deposited the 
eggs and fertilized them so that they will 
hatch, the papa and mama fish swim off 
down-stream again and many times never 
see their babies. Little fish babies, how- 
ever, are able to care for themselves, and 
as soon as they are hatched they go swim- 
ming about the water hunting for food 
and exercising their little bodies. In this 
way they soon grow up to be mamas and 
papas too, and in their turn raise other fam- 
ilies of little fish-babies. 



WHERE DO THE BIRD BABIES 
COME FROM? 



Where Do They Come From? 69 

Chapter VII 

Where Do the Bird Babies Come 
From? 

No doubt many times in the early spring 
you have looked out of your window at 
the robin redbreast hopping about on the 
green lawn. As with the flowers and 
fishes, so with the birds. Springtime is 
marriage or mating time. Hie robin red- 
breast that you saw busy on the lawn has 
a mate somewhere not far away. They 
have come north to build a nest and raise 
some little baby birds. The baby bird, 
like the baby fish, comes from an egg. But 
the bird egg is fertilized, or meets the 
papa element, before it leaves the mother's 
body. In God's ordained way, the life 
germ of the papa bird passes to the body 
of the mama bird and meets the tiny egg. 

When the papa and the mama bird get 
their cozy nest all built, the eggs pass 



70 Where Do They Come From? 

from the body of the mama bird and lodge 
in the nest; then comes the period of sit- 
ting. The fertile eggs must be kept warm 
for several days so that the life germ will 
begin to grow and form a baby bird. While 
the mother sits on the nest of eggs and 
warms them with her body, the papa bird 
sits in a tree near by and sings a song to 
cheer her. Occasionally he brings a bug 
or a worm and feeds the mama bird, and 
sometimes he will even sit on the nest 
awhile, so that the mother bird can fly 
about and take exercise and get food and 
water. 

After a few days the warmth from the 
mother's body causes the life germ to 
awaken, and the baby birds begin to grow, 
grow, grow. Soon they are too large to 
stay in the shell, so they take their tiny 
beaks and drill holes in the shells and 
come out into the world. The papa and 
mama birds are better to their babies than 







The Bird Family 



72 Where Do They Come From? 

are the fishes. The bird parents stay with 
their babies, feed them, and give them 
water until their feathers have grown and 
their wings become large enough to fly. 
Then the baby birds grow up to be as large 
as their parents. Soon they fly away, and 
next spring these baby birds — now grown 
large — come back, hop about on your 
lawn, build nests, lay eggs, and hatch baby 
birds of their own. 



WHERE DO THE ANIMAL 
BABIES COME FROM? 



Where Do They Come From? 75 

Chapter VIII 

Where Do the Animal Babies Come 
From? 

When we come to study the laws of 
reproduction in animal life, we find a dif- 
ferent process by which papas and mamas 
bring their young into the world. By ani- 
mals in this chapter we mean such as 
horses, cows, sheep, dogs, and cats. Here, 
as everywhere else, the rule that every or- 
ganic creature has a papa and a mama 
holds good. Here, too, we shall find that 
life must originate from an egg, and that 
the egg must be fertilized by the life ele- 
ment from the papa. 

In the reproduction of animals, however, 
we find a notable difference from the way 
that flowers and fishes and birds bring 
their babies into the world. In the fish 
family, for instance, the egg is fertilized 
after it leaves the mother's body. In the 



76 Where Do They Come From? 

bird family the egg is fertilized before it 
leaves the mother's body, but is hatched, 
or warmed into life, in the nest. With 
the animals the development of the egg is 
different from both the fishes and the birds. 
The animal nest where the egg is fertil- 
ized, warmed into life and nourished until 
it is able to begin its own independent life 
is in the mother's body. 

In the mother's body, too, there are 
two small organs called the ovaries. These 
organs produce the ova, or eggs. You 
might naturally think that the egg from 
which the larger animals are produced 
would be much larger than the egg from 
which comes the baby bird, but such is 
not the case. The ovum, or egg, from 
which many of the larger animals begin 
life is so small that it can not be seen with- 
out the aid of a magnifying glass. There 
is another very noticeable difference be- 
tween the common hen egg or the bird egg 




The Lower Animal Family 



78 Where Do They Come From? 

and the ovum, or egg, of an animal. The 
animal egg has no hard shell. Since this 
egg is so very small and is fertilized and 
nourished into life within the mother's 
body, it is not likely to be injured and 
therefore no hard shell is needed to protect 
the life germi. 

The animal egg, as we have before no- 
ticed, is produced by the ovaries. From 
the ovary the egg passes through a very 
small tube down to a little fleshy room, 
or nest, called the womb. Here in the 
womb it meets the life germ of the male 
and is fertilized. Warmed by the mother's 
body and nourished by the circulation of 
her blood, the little calf, for instance, lives 
and grows in the mother's body for about 
three-fourths of a year. At the end of 
that time it is expelled from the mother's 
body, or, as we commonly say, it is born. 
For a while after it is born it is nourished 
by the mother's milk, until its stomach and 



Where Do They Come From? 79 

digestive organs have grown strong enough 
so that it can eat grass and such other food 
as is taken by the parents. Like the 
flowers, the fishes, and the birds, the little 
calf grows up and itself becomes a papa 
or a mama to other baby calves. 



WHERE DO HUMAN BABIES 
COME FROM? 



Where Do They Come From? 83 

Chapter IX 

Where Do Human Babies Come 
From? 

We now come, young reader, to study 
the origin of our own lives. If you have 
read all the preceding chapters of this 
book, you are prepared for the answer to 
your question, Where did I come from? 
but if you have not read the foregoing 
chapters, you should stop right here and 
read them. 

Though man is endowed with more per- 
fect physical organs, with intellect, and 
with an immortal soul, which elevate him 
far above the lower animal, or brute, crea- 
tion, he is yet, in one sense, a member of 
the animal family. It will not surprize 
you, then, if I tell you that we come into 
the world very much as animals do. In 
fact, the human baby must start from an 
egg just as the animal babies do. 



84 Where Do They Come From? 

The human ovum, or egg, is produced 
by two small organs, called the ovaries, 
lying inside the mother's body. About 
every twenty-eight days the ovaries pro- 
duce an egg. These, so small that the 
natural eye can not see them, pass through 
a very small tube into the womb, a fleshy 
nest in the mother's body about the size 
of a small pear. But not every egg pro- 
duces a new life. Thousands of the eggs 
of the fish are destroyed and never make 
baby fishes; bad boys, cats, and other de- 
structive things destroy rr^any bird eggs, 
and millions of hen eggs are used for 
food. God has provided an overabun- 
dance of eggs, so that the fish, the birds, 
the animals, and men may be sure to re- 
produce their kind. As with other forms 
of life, so with man, many tiny ova, or 
eggs, pass from the mother's ovaries and 
are lost. It is only when the ovum has 
been fertilized by the papa element that it 




The Human Family 



86 Where Do They Come From? 

starts a new life. So you see our rule — 
all life starts from a seed or an egg, but 
the egg or seed must be fertilized by the 
papa element — holds good in human life 
just as it does in vegetable and animal life. 
When the human egg leaves the ovaries, 
it stops for a little while in the little fleshy 
nest before mentioned, located in the 
mother's body below her heart. If it does 
not meet the papa element there, it passes 
out of the body and is lost; but if it is fer- 
tilized by the papa element, it awakens 
and begins to grow. Soon it attaches itself 
to the walls of its little warm house so that 
the circulation of the mother's blood feeds 
and nourishes it. There, loved by the 
mother before it is born, and kept alive by 
her blood, the tiny ovum, or egg, contin- 
ues to grow for nine long months. Some- 
times it grows in that time to weigh eight 
or ten pounds, and even more. Then it 



Where Do They Come From? 87 

comes out into the world, and we say, "A 
baby is born." 

I think you will love your mother bet- 
ter if I tell you that when you were born 
it caused her much pain and suffering. 
Children seldom realize how much their 
mothers have done for them. Mother car- 
ried you in her own body near her heart, 
loved and cared for you there for three- 
fourths of a year, then she endured the 
sufferings of childbirth. But her care and 
labors did not stop there; she nourished 
you from her own body with the milk from 
her breasts and cared for you when you 
could not help yourself. Often the fish 
mother never sees her babies, the bird 
mother soon leaves her young, and the cow 
soon forgets her baby calf, but the human 
mother's heart clings to her children until 
death. Now you know, in part at least, 
why Mother and Father love you so well 
and why you should love and obey them. 



88 Where Do They Come From? 

You have doubtless observed that only 
married people have children. This is 
God's ordained way. Children must have 
both a father and a mother. It is the 
mother's part to care for the babies and 
to keep the home while the father earns 
the living. The Lord says, "For this 
cause shall a man leave father and mother, 
and shall cleave to his wife: and they 
twain [two] shall be one flesh." 

One cause for which a man and a 
woman leave their own homes, get mar- 
ried, and start a new home is that they 
may bring children into the world, care 
for them, and bring them up to be good 
men and women. In their child a man 
and his wife are truly made one, for each 
have a part in bringing it into the world 
and in bringing it to maturity. 

In concluding this chapter, let me say, 
little reader, that I may not have fully sat- 
isfied your mind on every point ; everything 



Where Do They Come From? 89 

in the mysterious process of life may not 
be fully clear to you, but as the years go 
by you will learn that what you have read 
in this little book is, after all, the primary 
knowledge of reproduction, or the origin 
of life. Life is full of mysteries to all of 
us, for there are some things that the oldest 
and wisest men can not understand or ex- 
plain. You should not be surprized then, 
nor discontented, because you do not know 
everything about the origin of a new life. 



SACREDNESS OF 
REPRODUCTION 



Where Do They Come From? 93 

Chapter X 
Sacredness of Reproduction 

From what I have told you about the 
origin of life, you will understand, I be- 
lieve, that the process of reproduction, or 
procreation, is one of the most sacred acts 
of life. In bringing into the world new 
beings, possessed of an intellect and an 
immortal soul, man approaches nearer to 
God than in any other act of life. God 
alone can create, for to create means to 
make from nothing; but God has given to 
mien and women, as well as to other 
forms of organic life, the power to pro- 
duce other beings like themselves. 

Knowing now, as you do, the high office 
and sanctity of the act of bringing chil- 
dren into the world, you will understand 
the sacredness of the procreative organs of 
your body. The private parts of the human 
body are wonderfully adapted for the 



94 Where Do They Come From? 

work God has designed them to fulfil. 
They are very tender and highly sensi- 
tive, and should be cared for and pro- 
tected. Any rough handling of the sex- 
ual organs may form a bad habit and will, 
if continued, impair the health of the boy 
or the girl and make him, or her, unable, 
when grown up, to bring into the world 
strong, healthy children. Some boys and 
girls have, through ignorance or through 
the influence of bad children, learned the 
bad habit of abusing the sexual organs 
with the hands or otherwise. Nothing is 
more destructive to your health, and noth- 
ing will more surely prevent you from be- 
coming strong, beautiful, intelligent, and 
useful men and women, than this vile prac- 
tice of abusing the private parts of your 
body. 

Some boys and girls whose papas and 
mamas have not taught them the lessons 
you have read in this book, are left to learn 



Where Do They Come From? 95 

as best they can from vile companions, who 
many times are very ignorant themselves. 
In almost every neighborhood you will 
find boys and girls whose mouths are filled 
with filthy words. They have little or no 
knowledge of procreation except what they 
have picked up in the streets or from filthy 
children or older people that make fun of 
the sacred things of life in vulgar and un- 
clean words* 

If you want to keep your body, mind, 
and soul strong and pure; if you want to 
become men and women that are good and 
strong, take care of your bodies, keep 
clean in body, mind, and soul, and avoid 
everything and everybody that is unmanly, 
unwomanly, or unclean. Bad company 
is the most dangerous thing in the world 
for the boy who wants to become a gen- 
tleman and the girl who wants to be a lady. 
Refuse to associate with or talk to the boy 



96 Where Do They Come From? 

or girl who wants to use filthy conversa- 
tion. 

If there is anything about the subject of 
this book or about the sacred things of life 
that you would like to know, ask your par- 
ents or your teacher, who should be able 
and willing to give correct information. 



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